While medicine, law, and other professions have made
considerable progress, race and gender equity remains a major
concern in architecture and planning, and among the organizations
that oversee education and practice.

The School of Architecture and Planning was created half a
century ago as a direct challenge to orthodox design education. We
live those original principles today, committed to architecture and
planning as interdisciplinary problem-solving enterprises, rooted
in social engagement, nourished by research-in-practice, animated
by making and doing, and committed to meeting the needs of clients,
communities, and society in an increasingly complex urban
world.

The School of Architecture and Planning and the University at
Buffalo offer a range of financial support opportunities for
students. Resources range from financial aid to scholarships to
student employment.

The School of Architecture and Planning, in partnership with the
university, our alumni, our faculty and staff, and our
philanthropic supporters, provides support to our undergraduate and
graduate students. In addition to tuition scholarships, stipends
for travel and supplies, and support for study abroad, our
students, like our faculty, are actively engaged in teaching,
research, and service—and are rewarded for their hard
work.

The Dean’s Council is a leadership group of friends of the
School of Architecture and Planning dedicated to raising
the global profile of the school and advancing its academic
programs and research enterprise. Members of the Dean’s
Council include distinguished alumni and leading
professionals, from firm executives to educators. As champions of
the School of Architecture and Planning, members leverage their
diverse expertise and leadership positions to forge new connections
and build the school's network of support.

Stay connected! Update your profile below and let us know where
you are and what you’re up to. As graduates of our
programs, your stories of success inspire our students and
enhance the reputation of the school on an international
platform.

The School of Architecture and Planning, in partnership with
local chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the
American Planning Association, has developed a Professional Mentor
Program for alumni and friends to share their experiences and
advice with current students.

Search job and internship opportunities in architecture and
planning. The following openings require varying levels of
education and experience and have been posted by employers on UB
Career Services' BullsEye system.

PAB Accreditation

Accreditation

Our two-year master’s in urban planning (MUP) degree is
fully accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board, a
Chicago-based organization that recognizes professional urban
planning programs for performance, integrity, and quality.
After a complete review in 2013, our program was fully reaccredited
through December 31, 2021. You can learn more about the
accreditation process at the Planning Accreditation Board’s
website.

As an accredited program, we practice transparency about
important data, so prospective applicants can be well-informed in
deciding whether to apply to us. Below, we provide
information about student evaluations, graduation rates,
graduates’ satisfaction, graduates’ employment, and
voluntary professional certification.

Student Achievement

In keeping with our obligations as an accredited program, we
require that students who are finishing the MUP demonstrate that
they have attained the basic competence to become professional
planners or the ability to enter advanced study and become planning
researchers. Though students undergo evaluation and grading
throughout their course of study, we especially stress the
mandatory culminating exercises, the final project or the
thesis, as a demonstration of capability.

Unless permitted to pursue a master’s thesis, our students
take 3-credit URP 697: Master’s Project in their final
semester. The class asks them each to independently write a
planning report of professional quality in response to distinct,
real-life, localized problems and opportunities, in a specific
place. The report tests abilities to integrate the concepts
and skills learned during MUP studies; apply these to a
selected geographical area (neighborhood, city, urban area, rural
area, or region); work with the limited information and
conflicting objectives often encountered in practice; develop
proposals about what local officials, government agencies, private
or nonprofit organizations, or citizen groups should do;
substantiate proposals with appropriate evidence and analysis;
present ideas in a clear, well organized document; and
accomplish all this against a deadline. The class instructor
assigns the municipality on which students prepare their report.

In his or her report, each student must demonstrate

a clear definition of problem

effective presentation of background or existing
conditions

appropriate selection of information and an explanation of the
limitations of information

appropriate analysis and interpretation (this is the most
important evaluation criterion) with findings flowing from the
analysis, and

appropriate recommendations and proposals for
implementation.

The report is further evaluated by its clarity of writing,
clarity of organization, appropriate format, appropriate citations
and referencing, and appropriate use of figures, maps, and
tables.

An instructor, advised in selected cases by a faculty committee,
evaluates the results and assigns a final grade. Students who
perform below expectation may graduate based on their grade point
average, or may be asked to perform remedial studies, depending on
the exact grade.

MUP Final Project Outcomes

Passed? (“B” or above)

Fall 2015

Spring 2016

2015-16
# and %

Yes

6

13

19

83

No

1

3

4

17

Total

7

16

23

100

Though it is a different kind of exercise than the final
project, a master’s thesis also demonstrates the ability to
synthesize literature and empirical information of relevance to the
advancement of professional planning. In our program,
students who have shown sufficiently strong academic performance
may apply to prepare a thesis instead of a project. Students
must prepare a proposal by the early third semester of their study
and have it approved by at least two faculty members and the
department chair.

Tuition and Fees

Tuition and Fees are calculated for one full academic year (fall
and spring semesters) and include tuition, University fees, and
School of Architecture and Planning fees as outlined below:

2016 – 2017 Academic Year

Tuition

University Fees[1]

School Fees

Total

In-State

$10,870

$2,951

$474

$14,295

Out-of-state

$22,210

$3,151

$474

$25,835

[1]University fees for the academic year include the
Comprehensive Fee ($1974), the Activity Fee ($128) and the Academic
Excellence Fee ($375). Matriculating International students are
also assessed the International Student Fee ($200).

Number of Degrees Awarded (single and combined):

2012 - 13: 41
2013 - 14: 34
2014 - 15: 41
2015 - 16: 34

AICP Exam Pass Rate

To become a certified planner, members of the American Planning
Associate (APA) must meet certain education and experience
requirements and pass the American Institute of Certificated
Planners (AICP) Exam. Participation in the certification
program is optional—many professional planners do not do
so. The pass rate is the percentage of test takers who pass
the examination within 3 years of graduating from a master’s
program. Please note that many of our graduates have chosen
to apply for certification after the 3-year period, and so are not
reflected in the statistics below.

Employment Rate in First Year after Graduation

2016 Survey Results for First Year Employment of Students that Graduated in Academic Year 14-15 (Graduates from September 2014, February 2015 and June 2015)

Graduates

39

Responses

10

Response Rate

26%

Employment within One Year of Graduation:

Professional Planning Job or Planning-Related Job

80%

Job outside of Planning

10%

Pursuing Advanced Degree

10%

2016 Survey Results for First Year Employment of Students that Graduated in Academic Years 14-15, 13-14, 12-13, 11-12 and 10-11)

Graduates

189

Responses

43

Responses Rate

23%

Employment within One Year of Graduation:

Professional Planning Job or Planning-Related Job

60%

Job outside of Planning

16%

Pursuing Advanced Degree

7%

Other

8%

No Response

9%

Note: A planning position may take place at local,
regional, state (province), national, or international
levels. It may occur in the public sector, public authority,
nonprofit organization, or private sector. Specific fields
that constitute planning include: arts and culture planning,
community activism/empowerment, community development, consulting,
disaster planning, economic development, energy development and
planning, environmental planning, GIS and other computer
applications to planning, historic preservation and heritage,
housing, international development, land use and code enforcement,
legal practice related to planning, natural resources planning,
neighborhood planning, parks and recreation, planning education,
planning for training programs, planning within an architectural or
engineering firm, planning management/finance, public health, real
estate development, tourism development, transportation planning
and analysis, urban design, and waste management. A
planning-related position includes consulting, design,
development, nonprofit management and administration, policymaking,
policy analysis, corporate location, health policy analysis, and
public administration that in some way uses your planning skills or
contributes to planning objectives but does not fall under the
first definition above.

Program Satisfaction

In June, to find out our graduates’ perceptions after
graduation, we surveyed graduates of the five preceding year.
Please see 2016 survey results for full information
on our methods, numbers of respondents, and actual results.
Previous survey results are available here:2015 survey results, 2014 survey, 2013 survey.

Our survey shows that, of our students who graduated from 2008
through 2015 that responded to the survey questions, 87% were
satisfied with their education and 13% dissatisfied. Of our
respondents, a large majority agreed that the program had provided
them with important planning capabilities. Specifically, 91%
said they agreed that our graduates were prepared for collaborative
practice and client/community participation, 91% agreed that the
program had prepared them on questions of ethical practice, 89%
agreed that the program taught them to analyze data qualitatively
and quantitatively, and 87% agreed that the program prepared them
for employment. Overall, we believe that these data reflect
well on the quality of our program.

Faculty Sponsored Research

Externally funded research refers to planning research that our
faculty performs because of grants from outside foundations and
government agencies. The resulting research spans community
development, planning for public health, environmental planning,
transportation planning, and other fields. Through such
research, our faculty contributes to the advancement of knowledge
for the planning profession and for the understanding of urban
affairs.

Fiscal Year

Expenditures

2014 - 2015

$960,643

2013 - 2014

$1,112,004

2012 – 2013

$680,764

2011 - 2012

$193,583

2010 - 2011

$121,813

2009 - 2010

$204,853

2008 - 2009

$311,296

2007 - 2008

$285,219

2006 - 2007

$215,556

Table 1: Sponsored Funding Performance

We are committed to maintaining a high volume of sponsored
research by our faculty members, as befits a leading research
university. To measure our faculty productivity in such
research, we collected data on actual sponsored research
expenditures per year. Since many projects involve multiple
investigators from many disciplines, we were careful to identify
the funding attributable to just our own faculty members.
Also, we did not include in this data funds committed to
research but not yet spent. The results (see table 1) show
substantial increase in research expenditure with exceptional
accomplishments in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years.
We expect such exceptional accomplishment in research
performance in the coming years.